Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Donatella is descended from one of Brunello di Montalcino's historic families. She was born in Siena in 1953 and graduated in Art History with honors in the same city.

She was the first to foresee the tourism potential of wine destinations and, in 1993, she invented "Cantine aperte", which, in just a few years, put wine tourism on the map in Italy. Today, she teaches wine tourism at post-graduate level.

In 1998, she left the family business to create her own, including Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino, where she produces Brunello, and Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda, with a Chianti winery and agritourism center. Her wineries are the first in Italy to be run entirely by a female team.

In 2003, Donatella won the Oscar for Best Italian Producer and published the Wine Tourism Handbook. Her second book, "Marketing del Turismo del vino", was published in 2007, followed in 2016 by "Marketing delle Cantine aperte". Other collective works followed: "Turismo del vino in Italia" (2020), "Viaggio nell'Italia del vino" (2022) and "Turismo del vino 4.0" (2023).

From 2001 to 2011, she was a tourism advisor for the municipality of Siena, during which time she created "urban trekking", a new form of sustainable and healthy tourism. From 2013 to 2022, Donatella chaired the Orcia Doc consortium, launching it as "The most beautiful wine in the world" and a liquid postcard of her territory.

In 2012, she received the "Vinitaly International Award" and in 2014, the title of Knight of the Italian Republic. From 2016 to 2022, she was national president of Femmes du Vin and now heads the association's Tuscan delegation.